Michael Mina 74 Restaurant Review

: With numerous Michael Mina restaurants throughout the U.S. (including several duplicates of Bourbon Steak, the chef/restaurateur’s first Miami-area venture), it’s clear that Mina is a master at analyzing what different locales like. And this MM74 concept, created especially for the Fontainebleau, says that in Miami Beach diners like to play with their food and they favor a dining ambience that channels the beach’s preferred playgrounds: nightclubs. Fortunately, though, MM74’s lounge-like look does not mean it’s the usual Miami resto-lounge, where the thumping nightclub component invariably dominates. Here the fun comes from the food, starting with rolling raw bar carts that include local seasonal selections like stone crab and Florida spiny lobster. Crustaceans come in more affordable street-food form as lobster corn dogs with cubanelle pepper dip. For serious appetites there are steaks, but since some seafood comes direct from the Fontainebleau’s own fishing boat, the BleauFish, we’d stick with local catches. Naturally, everyone orders Mina’s famous truffle donuts sprinkled with Parmesan “coconut” shreds. But frankly, the dessert menu’s deep-fried items --- sweet “finger beignets” (i.e. fancy churros) with Macallan 18 whiskey pudding dip and caramel sauce --- provide more flavor bang than the savory-style, but oddly bland, signatures. The extensive, and expensive, wine list ranges globally, and covers classics to boutique selections.